Chicken and Waffles with Maple BACON Gravy

The number one reason to buy Cooking for Isaiah by Silvana Nardone--her waffle recipes!  The woman is brilliant!  Seriously!  Who would have thought to use a waffle iron to make bread?!?!  Not me, by any means.  And while I don't like a couple things about her cook book in general, her stuff TASTES good!  She is a dang good cook, I will give her that much, and this recipe is PROOF!

I was a little nervous to try this recipe.  I know it has BACON in it, and you can't go wrong with that, but it turned maple syrup into a gravy, and something didn't seem right about that.  I put my fears and wariness to the side, and went all out with this recipe, not changing anything.  Okay, well, I changed one thing.  I didn't have any chicken breasts WITH the skin.  Eeewww.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I love chicken skin, just like anyone else, but why add the calories?  Especially when you can get skinless and boneless chicken breasts for $1.78 per pound at Walmart.  This affected the recipe slightly, and the cooking time, and probably the over all texture of the chicken, in the end.  But it still tasted AMAZING!

OH!  That's right.  I forgot about a little mistake a made along the way...I made this about two and a half weeks ago.  I had forgotten that the way she writes her recipes is kind of confusing.  She lists her ingredients on the left side of the directions.  Cool.  But then she will say, "...whisk together the eggs, vegetable oil and 1 1/2 cups milk..."  So, I quickly look at the ingredients list, and add all the eggs, all the oil and ALL of the milk.  Of course, the ingredients list says that 3 cups of rice milk is needed.  So, guess what I just did to the waffle batter?  Yeah, SOUP!  Haha, the funny thing was I didn't realize I had done that until step 4, when I needed to add milk to the gravy.  And then it made sense.  I thought the batter seemed runny, and it took a lot longer to cook than the recipe said it would.  Oh goodness.

So, now, when I am using Cooking for Isaiah, I triple check the instructions, which is rather annoying.  But this recipe is definitely worth it.  The waffles have dry mustard, paprika and fresh parsley for seasoning.  They tasted so good.  (My kids loved them, and wanted just the waffles by themselves, too bad I couldn't have sneaked some healthy veggies in them or something.)  The chicken was easy to cook, and didn't take very long at all.  The gravy...now THAT was the icing on the cake!  It had BACON, maple syrup and a hint of cayenne pepper, which ended up making it a bit too strong for the kids, but made Josh and my taste buds very happy.

Here is Josh, eating his second helping, HIS WAY.  He made that puppy into a sandwich and licked his fingers when he was done!  I didn't have a second helping, but I did eat another waffle, just by itself.  YUM!

The rating on this recipe is 5 stars out of 5 stars!  It really doesn't matter how much it cost, or how difficult it was or even how many calories were in it, IT WAS WORTH IT!

New to Gluten Free and Beyond

It has been 15 days since my last post, and I have made 17 recipes from two different cook books.  One cook book I have mentioned before, Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Pete Bronski; the other cook book I have not mentioned yet, but I have been eager to try some recipes from: Cooking for Isaiah  by Silvana Nardone.

My original intent for starting this blog was to make myself start trying new recipes.  The idea came when I got a cook book I ordered in the mail called Gluten Free Girl and the Chef by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern.  I saw the book online and I was super excited about it, but when I got it, and started to flip through the recipes, I was shocked.  "Millet Tabouleh" and "Watermelon Gazpacho" and "Umbraian Lentils with Duck Confit" and "Rabbit with Mustard".  Really?  Yeah, that sounds great: "Okay, Andrew, go sit at the table while I dish you up some rabbit with mustard; that's a good boy."  No, I don't think so.  Thankfully, I had the Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking book, and I started on those recipes.  But anyway, my idea was to cook all the recipes in the books, and blog about them, and in the end write a cook book review, so that other people would know what they were buying.  I am sure there are several people who are going to read this blog and think, "Oooooo!  Millet Tabouleh!  How exciting!"  Or, "Man, I have been looking for a good GF watermelon gazpacho!"  But as you have noticed, trying those recipes are not top priority.  No, I needed some down to earth, easy to make meals, and quick!  I didn't know how many more times I could feed my kids beans and rice before I was going to go crazy!

My intentions have expanded a little now.  The more I write and the more I research, and the more I cook, the more I realize that there is a slough of information out there for people needing information on a gluten free life style.  I am new at this, I can not offer any one any real information.  But I have realized that there is something of value I can offer.  Experience.  If you go to Google and type "gluten free recipes" you will get (and I quote Google) "About 506,000 results".  I have personally been to probably 20 gluten free blogs so far.  I know there are a ton more, but I can only read so much with all the cooking and cleaning I do, plus dealing with the kids running around the house.  But if you are new to the gluten free life, and you are struggling with what books to buy, and what blogs to follow, fear not!  I have struggled to.  And this blog seeks to review all the information out there, and help you decide just what it is YOU want to do.  Because we can all follow the Artisanal Gluten Free Cooking to the letter, or we can follow the Gluten Free Mommy blog to the "T", but neither of those things are us.  My life is different from their lives.  And your life is different from mine.  So...this blog is more of a guide through the floods of gluten free information and knowledge.  And fortunately it is also quite entertaining.  Don't worry, you are not the first one to ask what "xanthan gum" is.  You aren't the first one to have problems reading labels, or baking GF bread.  And don't worry, you will not be the last.  Good luck on your adventure.

As for the 17 recipes I haven't blogged about...I am still uncertain of what to do.  It is a lot of catching up to do.  Maybe I will just start fresh tomorrow, and post one a day starting tomorrow, and when I come to a day when I don't have time or energy to make a new recipe, I will pull one of the ones out that I have already made, but haven't blogged about.

PHEW!  It is nice to not have the pressure of catching up on my shoulders anymore.  Thank you all for your continued support and for joining my on my GF journey!

Lemon Loaf

Finished product.

Mess from trying to juice the lemon with out a juicer....I am open to better options, with out having to get a juicer, obviously.  I also ended up spilling some of the fresh juice, and having to get out my not so fresh juice...this reminds me of a Dr. Seuss book.  "...try Finny's Freshest Fish, French Fried..."

I do have a zester....but my lemon wasn't looking to good, I should have made the lemon loaf sooner.

This is the lemon loaf in the oven.

I was not impressed with this recipe.  I am WAY behind on blogging, and so I am not going to take the time to rate it and all that.  I will say that I had to use an entire bottle of poppy seeds, which were $4.32 a bottle!  And if you ask me, they recipe called for WAY to many of them.  All I tasted was poppy seeds, and not enough lemon.  Josh loved it, of course.  So, as you can see, the Artisan Gluten Free Flour Mix is a great mix.  It works just like regular flour.  We have yet to eat something made from it and think, "ewww" because of the textrue of the bread, or taste.  If I don't like the recipe it is because of something else.  Haha.  The Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking book by Kelli and Pete Bronski is awesome.  :)

Chocolate Chip Scones

This picture is proof that something can taste good, but look weird all at the same time.  I know that scones aren't necessarily supposed to look like pieces of pizza, but, as I like to say, "I can explain".

This recipe comes from the cook book Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking by Kelli and Pete Bronski.  I used my new hand crank grain mill (that I got from my wonderful mother-in-law) to make all natural, long grain, brown rice into flour.  I had to run it through the mill at least twice.  And then I needed to mix it with a few other flours to come up with their Artisan GF Flour Mix.

On to the recipe rating:

*Difficulty: 3 out of 5 stars

     I am a visual person, definitely not audio, so reading the directions for how to cut these in to triangles was not the simplest thing.  I had to read it several times, and even re-cut it, after I messed it up the first time.  They used words like "long", "wide", and "crosswise".  If I had had a picture with arrows directing me, I would have been able to easily decide whether crosswise meant the length or the width.

     Mixing it up was a breeze with my kitchenaid though, and the dough was pretty easy to work with.  I think since I never baked before this gluten problem, I am at a bit of a disadvantage.  Anyone who cooks and bakes is probably using my blog as a good source of comedy.  But, when you can buy perfectly good scones at the store, why bake them?  But when you have to order GF scones, and pay to have them shipped to you, and they are four or five times the price of scones that have gluten in them, making them seems like a must.

     I would also like to add, that I was trying to read the directions with three wild kids running around the kitchen "helping" me.  And since I mentioned having to cut it more than once, I will add that the pictured scone above has lines in it because of the previous cuts.  I was running out of time (bed time was looming) and I didn't mix the dough and start over.  I tried to mush the lines together instead.  

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars

     Not long at all.  Only 20 minutes in the oven.

*Price: 3 out of 5 stars

     $7.34 not including the chocolate chips.  I tried to find out how much I spent on them, but I couldn't.  I bought GF and DF (dairy free) chocolate chips at the World Food Market in Omaha.  I am not too impressed with the over all price of the scones.  

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

     

*Yum Factor: 4.5 out of 5 stars

     They turned out great.  I would have added more chocolate chips.  But other than that, perfect.  The texture was perfect.  Not that I really ate scones before, so I couldn't tell you how much they are alike or different from their glutenous counterparts.

*Over All Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Yesterday I made Pumpkin Spice Muffins from the cook book Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking Kelli and Pete Bronski.  Of course, I had to cook the little pie pumpkin I have had sitting on my counter for weeks, first.  I say little, but it was too big to fit the whole pumpkin in one pan.  So, I put half in the microwave, and half in my veggie steamer pan.  It took about a half hour.  No fuss at all.  The pumpkin in the microwave took about 20 minutes, so it was done first.

While I was at it, I washed and roasted the seeds!  So yummy!  It was like eating pop corn.  I told myself they were zero calories, but I am sure that is not true.

If I have learned anything about baking from this cook book, it is that butter and vanilla extract can make ANYTHING taste good.  I have never bought this much butter in my life.  Practically every recipe in the cook book calls for butter.  I am going to need to find a substitute though, I found out what had been giving us all problems in the previous batches of muffins I had made....butter. 

I have been dealing with a lactose intolerance issue for almost a year now.  I had never thought butter gave me any problems.  I had eaten it on baked potatoes and the like, but those muffins have not been agreeing with me.  This time I used a margarine (which usually has milk in it, but this kind did not, it was made from olive oil and other oils).  No problems!  And it's a good thing too, because I was starting to be afraid that it was another allergy to an additional grain I had been using for baking.

Over all, the ratio of spices and the amount of pumpkin all came together to form the perfect muffin.  Either I am getting better at baking gluten free, or these are the best muffins ever made....either way, I will be making them again.  They are delicious!

*Difficulty: 5 out of 5 stars

     With my kitchen aid, this was a piece of cake.  Even cooking the pumpkin wasn't that hard.

*Time: 5 out of 5 stars 

     

*Price: 5 out of 5 stars

    $4.82 for 18 muffins which makes it almost 27 cents a muffin.  Better than the blueberry ones, as far as price goes.  I wonder if less butter was needed, since there was moist pumpkin in it.  I also have been wondering if I can substitute apple sauce for butter and oil in GF recipes.  I think I am going to ask the authors of this cook book in an email.

*OHA: 5 out of 5 stars

*Yum Factor: 5 out of 5 stars

*Calories: I didn't track this one, this time.  Sorry.

*Over All Rating: 5 out of 5 stars!  

Oh, and here is a picture of the pumpkin seeds.  YUMMY!

Chili

This recipe took chili to a WHOLE NEW level for me!  I have been called the queen of chili before.  But I never took it too serious because I used a packaged seasoning mix from McCormick.  Everyone always raved about it though.  I got my recipe from a recipe exchange I did once.  A friend from college gave me her "touch down chili" recipe.  It called for a cup of vegetables and suggested sour cream and cheese as toppings.  I don't much like vegetables in my chili, so I always did a green bell pepper and an onion.  It worked great.  Well, guess what one of the first things to go was, when we found out about the gluten problem?  The chili seasoning.  It wasn't the end of the world.  I got the hang of seasoning it myself.  But it was never quite the same.

But, now, I have a chili recipe!  The best ever!  REALLY!  It is SO YUMMY!  And, it is a slow cooker recipe to boot!  I love using my crock pot!  So this is a double whammy!  

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the chili.  And the left overs were not around too long, so I couldn't even get a picture of those.  But I will say, the cost of the Artisanal Gluten-Free Cooking book by Kelli and Pete Bronski is not too high a price to pay for this chili recipe!  I am tempted to not even rate it....because it doesn't matter how many calories are in it, or how much it cost, it is worth every calorie and every penny!  And since I can hear the kids waking up, and running around up stairs, I think I might just do that.

Over all rating 6 out of 5 stars!  How about that?!?!

A few things about this recipe though:

1. You put most of the ingredients in the slow cooker, and then you put a one pound beef roast on top, in the middle.  It kind of sinks down about half way.  You are supposed to cook it on low for 8 to 10 hours.  I didn't.  I cooked it on high for 4 hours, because I had started it too late.  By the end of the cooking time, if you do it on low, you should be able to "shred" the beef.  I wasn't.  I had to cut mine into small pieces, but that's okay.  It was still way yummy!

2. I did end up topping the chili with a dollop of sour cream (tuffuti, non dairy) and some scallions.  The scallions MADE THIS!  Oh my word.  The crunch and flavor....well, you are just going to HAVE to try this.

So, if you are going gluten free, and missing your McCormick chili seasoning, like I did, this will change your life.  Like Kelli and Pete's blog says, "No gluten, NO PROBLEM!".

**Addition**
I found a picture of me and the chili...well the closest thing I could find.